A Mutual Understanding
by pyrofreeze
Summary: Roxas and Sora talk and an understanding is reached.


A/N: This is my first story on fanfiction. Oh yeah, I don't own anything. Do you think if I owned Kingdom Hearts I would be spending my time writing fanfiction for it? Yeah, no; didn't think so.

A Mutual Understanding

Late at night, Sora sometimes dreamed of a blonde haired boy. The boy would sit on the edge of a stained glass platform, legs dangling over the dark abyss that surrounded them. He never talked to the boy, and nor did the boy ever talk to him. And so they would sit close, and yet he felt as if they were worlds apart.

Once or twice he tried confiding in Donald or Goofy about the odd dreams, but Goofy wasn't quite an "advice" sort of guy, and Donald told him to just get over it. Sometimes Sora regretted the fact that neither of his companions were the type you could talk about your problems and get sound advice from... but Donald and Goofy were his friends, and they had their own skills that he cherished deeply. However, that still didn't help with the problem at hand: the dreams of the silent blond haired boy still made him somewhat nervous. And so, Sora decided that since he was the only one who could solve the problem, that he would have to be the one to do it; so he did the only thing he could: he attempted to talk to the boy.

"I'm Sora." He suddenly told the blonde, mirroring the other boy's actions of swinging his legs two and fro.

"I know." The other told him before falling silent again. After a few awkward moments of silent, Sora grew irritated.

"Aren't you going to tell me your name?" Sora asked.

To his annoyance, the boy answered by saying, "Why do you even care?"

"Because I do, and besides, it's polite to give your name after someone has given theirs!"

The other boy gave a sort of noncommittal sound before finally replying by simply saying, "Roxas."

"What?"

"My name stupid." He told him flatly, "My name's Roxas."

"Oh." Sora flushed in embarrassment, "That's a…eh… nice name."

Roxas shrugged. "Whatever."

The two sat for a time overlooking the void before Sora spoke again. "Why do I keep dreaming of you?"

"I don't know." Roxas told him, sounding vaguely annoyed with all of Sora's sudden questioning, "Why do you even _care_ anyway?"

It was Sora's turn to shrug. "I don' know, it's just… I've been dreaming of you a lot, and I keep getting this feeling that there is something your supposed to tell me, or maybe it's something I'm supposed to tell you…" Sora paused, looking thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "…Maybe your suppose to tell me who you are… are you dead?"

Roxas quirked an eyebrow, and a small smile wormed its way onto his face. "No… not really anyway. Why do you ask?"

"Dunno… I just thought maybe you were a ghost that needed to be put to rest, you know? They show it in the movies all the time… wait." Sora paused, "What do you mean by "not really" dead? You're either dead, or you aren't!"

Roxas chuckled lightly at the bug-eyed look on Sora's face. "You should know by now Sora from traveling from world to world that the possibilities are endless, and besides… haven't you heard of nobodies?"

"Of course I have!" Sora huffed, "They're heartless, soulless, emotionless beings that are evil like...like the heartless!"

Roxas frowned at Sora's description, "Do you really believe that? What about Organization XIII?"

"Oh, _them_." Sora rolled his eyes, "Yen Sid told me about those guys; he told me that they pretended to feel and have hearts…they're the worst type of Nobodies if you ask me."

Roxas turned away from Sora and stared into the abyss darkly. "I was number 13."

"Huh?" Sora blinked, "Number 13? Number 13 of what?"

"Of Organization XIII of course."

"WHAT! You're a nobody!" Sora asked in disbelief, "Then what…? Why…?"

"Nobodies are created after a person with a strong hearts dies, and incase you've forgotten, you became a heartless briefly…"

"..." Sora's eyes suddenly became wide in realization, "…No…"

"I'm your nobody, Sora." Roxas told him, "and I'm the only reason that you remember everything."

"What…?"

"I gave up my life so that you could live." Roxas told him emotionlessly, "DiZ brought me to you when it was time for you to "wake up", and he told me that I had to rejoin with you, because I wasn't suppose to exist. Tell me Sora, do you believe that too?"

"I…" Sora wasn't sure what to say. Roxas's voice was thick with emotion, but Sora knew that it wasn't possible. Nobodies couldn't _feel_, and yet here Roxas was, seemingly just as human as he, and yet..._not._..

"Do you believe that because I'm a "nobody" that I do not have a right to live? Do I not have the right to laugh, and to cry, and to feel, and to care? Do I not have those rights as a nobody? Tell me Sora, you have friends that you would give anything for...what would you do if you were taken away from them, and were able to see them hurting, and in pain, and trying to reach you, but you couldn't say a word, what would you do?"

"I-I wouldn't be able to stand it..." Sora whispered, inching away from Roxas as the other boy grew more and more flustered.

"Think of that feeling Sora. Think of how you would feel not to be able to reach out to them, and then you'll have how I feel. All those Organization members were people I used to know and work with. All those people you've _killed _were people I _knew_, and some of them were even my _friends_. Demyx was my friend, and all I could do was sit here within you and watch you _destroy _him, and Axel… Axel is my best friend, and every time you stood before him, all I wanted to do is talk to him, if only to assure him that I'm okay... but no, I couldn't even do _that_. All I could do was watch him walk away! How would you feel Sora to be told that you can't exist simply because your different from everyone else?"

Sora didn't know what to say, and frankly, he was starting to feel guilty... but why? Why did he feel guilty? Yen Sid had said that Nobodies couldn't feel, but how could all the emotion that Roxas had be just an act? It was just too _real _to be feigned.

"I'm...sorry." Sora whispered softly, looking away from Roxas, "I'm not sure what else I can say..."

The silence that sat between them was almost unbearable, but Sora couldn't bring himself to break it; instead, he waited for Roxas to speak again.

"Truly...I can't blame you Sora, even though I want to with all my might...I just can't."

Sora looked up at Roxas in surprise and disbelief, "...Why?"

"Because," Roxas told him, "You couldn't have possibly known about me, and besides, as Namine once told me, I was never supposed to exist; none of us were...or at least that's what they tell us."

"How can you say that? How can _anyone _say that, even if it _were_ true?" Sora asked, aghast.

"That's just what I said when she told me, but really... it's the harsh truth."

"But...that isn't fair..."

Roxas gave Sora a scrutinizing look, "...Just a moment ago you were trash talking nobodies, and suddenly you're agreeing with me on how my kind is treated unfairly?"

Sora flushed slightly and averted his eyes from Roxas. "Well...I don't know what it is really...it's just...I've never actually talked to a nobody before, and so I just accepted everyone's descriptions of what a nobody is, but...despite what everyone has told me about nobodies, after hearing what you've had to say, I can't help but believe you. I don't know what it is, but I feel as though we have a connection of sorts. As though I can understand and relate to you…"

"Well duh we have a connection," Roxas deadpanned, "We're technically one person; we're two halves that make a whole."

"Two halves?"

"Of course. I'm memories, and logic, and you are heart and soul. Doesn't it make sense that way?"

"I…...suppose. I mean, I don't think it would make much sense if _I _was logic and _you _were heart; you see more like a "logic" sort of guy anyway." Sora giggled at his own statement, and Roxas actually chucked lightly before Sora continued, his face becoming serious. "So...there's no way for us both to live our own dependent lives, is there?"

Roxas stopped chuckling, and his face dropped slightly, causing his lips to curve into a small frown. "We're not meant to exist without the other. I suspect that reason we were able to live apart for a time was because we were probably living on used time; if you hadn't fallen asleep for such a long time, sometime during that year we would have to join or risk having us both fade away. Truthfully, there is no way around it. We have to live as one, or else we can't live at all."

Sora looked mournful for several moments before speaking his mind. "I wish there was something I could do..."

"But there isn't." Roxas reassured him, "There's nothing anyone can do. And besides, if I have to be someone's nobody, I'm glad that I'm yours rather then someone elses. You're a good guy Sora, and I know you'll live your life to the fullest, and that you'll use your life to help better others. Though I wish I could be my own person, I know that it can't be helped, so I refuse to linger on wishes and hopes can't be true…"

"Isn't there anything that I can do?" Sora asked, "Anything at all?"

Roxas smiled at Sora's request; a true, full-fledged smile. "If you see _him _again, just give him my regards, okay?"

Sora returned the smile and nodded vigorously. Even though the request had been rather ambiguous, for some reason now there was an understanding between them. Sora didn't really need an explanation because their was somehow an understanding between. The two of them were so very different and yet at the same time... they were so very alike.

And so the next day when Sora faced Axel for the final time he knew the words he needed to say.

"Some things can't be Axel," Sora told him, "No matter how much everyone wishes they were so, they just _can't _be. That's just the way the world works." Sora could hear Donald and Goofy's questioning voices asking him what was going on, but for the moment, he ignored him. He had a final message to deliver, and he had promised to deliver it. Sora _never _went back on his promises.

"And if it's any constellation..." Sora began ruefully, "He said if you had been the one to leave and not him, he would have missed you too."

This caused Axel to freeze for a moment as an unreadable emotion crossed his face for a split second before his usual cocky grin appeared once more. "Thanks kid. You're... not so bad, you know? You remind me a little of him. Your friend's in the castle dungeon. Take care of her, okay? And...Roxas too."

"Will do." Sora told him, already knowing the out come of this seemingly endless battle against the Dusks, "We'll keep each other in line." He told him with a grin before Axel made the ultimate sacrifice to save his best friend and the boy he was a part of, knowing that he was leaving his friend in good hands.

"Sora, what were you and Axel talking about?" Donald asked innocently.

Sora only smiled sadly as they walked the streets in the World That Never Was headed towards Organization XIII's headquarters.

"I just had a message for Axel...from his best friend." He told them honestly, "A final message from one friend to another so that they both could finally be at peace."

Donald shrugged, seemingly satisfied with the vague answer before Sora added, "It's too bad Axel had to die though; he was a good guy."

"But he was one of the _bad_ guys and a _Nobody _at that!" Donald told him.

"He may have been a Nobody, but he certainty wasn't bad, and besides… not everyone can be a someone in this world. The world needs nobodies too."

Goofy and Donald both didn't look as though they really believed Sora's explanation, but they both nodded at least. But turly, it didn't matter to Roxas if they believed Sora. At least Sora understood, and Axel had received his message, and maybe, just maybe...he'd pass it on to Demyx too.

But now his time had passed; His friends were gone, but Sora's were still alive and well. Roxas knew he would do anything in his power to help Sora find them, because if their situations had been reversed, Sora would have done the same for him. And As much as Sora understood his feelings, Roxas understood Sora's; friendship was something that was understood, and was something they both though was worth fighting for.

* * *

A/N: For me, this story has just been waiting to be written since I finished Kingdom Hearts II months ago. A note about Roxas mentioning that Demyx was his friend: I've just always loved the idea of Roxas, Demyx, and Axel being friends while they were all still in the Organization. Oh, and I owe a special thanks to my sister, who was nice enough to take some time and read through this story before I submitted it.


End file.
